There is probably no job more nerve-wracking and stressful than running Barack Obama's campaign right now.
Two experienced veterans of Chicago and national politics, David Plouffe and David Axelrod (who, during his time on the senator's staff, was so influential he was dubbed "the 101st Senator") must manage the incredibly difficult task of guiding the Obama campaign through some of the most treacherous political waters in years.
The main difficulty they face is one of balance. Obama's campaign is being pulled in two different directions: On the one hand, they must start pulling out the knives against Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton, and on the other, they must remain consistent to their candidate's rhetoric of a "new" politics that discards negativity, nastiness and bitterness.
Hope, unity and feel-good openness are the new watchwords, according to this reformed political process Obama proposes. And this strategy has served the youthful Illinois senator well. In 5 short years, it has propelled him from a state senate seat in Illinois to the U.S. Senate to the position of main rival to Hillary for the Democratic nomination for president.
For comparison, Joe Biden and Chris Dodd have slaved away in the Senate for over 20 years, biding their time for a presidential run, and they've barely got a tenth of what Obama can boast in terms of supporters and money.
Unfortunately, feel-good rhetoric can only get you so far. It is now apparent that Obama has hit a plateau while Hillary's star continues to rise. In polls which previously showed her capturing around 35 percent of Democratic primary voters, she now breaks 50 percent. Her financial juggernaut continues unabated, raking in more money than the top three Republican candidates combined.
To Obama's credit, he has kept pace with Hillary in donations, but he remains stuck in the same place - the high 20s - in poll after poll. Of all the early primary states, only Iowa shows Obama within striking range of Hillary. And so Obama's main handlers, Plouffe and Axelrod, must walk a very narrow tightrope. In order to cut Hillary down to size, they need to put their candidate on the attack. He needs to start being more aggressive, disagreeing less politely, criticizing her by name.
If you look at Obama's speeches and campaign events over the last week and a half, you'll notice an edge to his rhetoric and a sharpness to his jabs at Hillary that wasn't there before.
But at the same time, that feel-good hope-monger and foe of negative politics needs to remain visible, too. To delve head-first into negative campaigning would shoot to pieces 6 months of noble speeches decrying the politics-as-usual tendency to attack, attack, attack. In order to retain his credibility on this issue, Obama can't get his hands too dirty. He can't start hacking away with an axe; he needs to pull out the quiet knives and start sticking them in Hillary's back while keeping that honest, wholesome smile on his face.
Oh, and just to make things more complicated, remember: If Obama's blows hit too close to home and Hillary squeaks out with the nomination anyway, he's off her list of potential running mates. Our tightrope walker now has to juggle flaming torches, too.
It's a tough balance to strike: Gear into attack mode while continuing to burnish your credentials as a "beyond politics" politician, and stay just nice enough to remain on the vice presidential shortlist in case Hillary pulls it out.
But if anyone can do it, it's the Obama team, which has worked wonders so far.
Michael Sherry is a junior majoring in political science. He can be reached at michael.sherry@tufts.edu.
